Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency were conducting an investigation of contents of storage tanks outside MagnaGro International Tuesday. One EPA worker was working from a ladder to draw solution samples out one of the tanks on the west side of the building.

Crews from the Environmental Protection Agency and Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical conducted an investigation Tuesday at MagnaGro International.

Officials in protective suits took samples from containers and tanks at the business, 600 E. 22nd St., in what an EPA spokesman said was a routine follow-up to a compliance evaluation visit on June 1.

David Bryan, public affairs specialist with the regional EPA office, said crews were on scene to examine MagnaGro's chemical inventory and took samples from the facility's hazardous waste tanks to ensure the material is being properly stored. Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical crews did not participate in the investigation, but were on scene in case the EPA required emergency assistance.

The samples will be analyzed at a laboratory and then officials will release a report, Bryan said.

He said the EPA's investigation is not connected with events last week, when city inspectors and police officers shut down the business because it had operated in violation of city codes for three years.

MagnaGro has a extensive history of run-ins with local, state and federal environmental regulators.

Somebody needs to report this to OSHA. The ladder is clearly not tied off as required and it does not extend atleast 3 feet above the platform which it rests upon. Anyone else using a ladder in this manner would be cited and fined. Also, notice in the video that only a few are wearing respirators, not all. Sloppy folks! A double standard you might say.

"split" the samples, correct terminology.. yep, they should. but if 2 people died there preparing a batch of something, AND there is a history of bad acting at magnagrow, even doing any analysis is a waste. "OK Dr Jones, looks like we found the contents of some of these containers to be highly toxic or fatal chemicals!" uhh..

oh yeah, and the suits are for the cameras. who is gonna notice a ladder not latched? same with the FD being there, mostly just showing up, if a real incident happened you can bet they would be gone right away

The first thing I noticed in the photo is that there appears to be a large brown uncapped glass jug duct taped to the pole going into the storage tank. Is this how scientific sampling is done these days? I thought there would be more to it than that.